IS AMERICA - Snow Business in US: Skiing Into the World of Winter Wonderlands

　　Skiing, snowboarding and mountain resorts add up to billions of dollars. Why an industry that can make its own snow is still concerned about climate change. Transcript of radio broadcast:

　　24 February 2008

　　Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

　　VOICE TWO:

　　And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we look at the business of skiing and snowboarding in the United States.

　　(MUSIC)

　　VOICE ONE:

　　Snow sports are a big business. Ski areas help support local economies. One hundred sixty-five thousand people work in the mountain resort industry. It earns five billion dollars a year.

　　The president of the National Ski Areas Association provided these numbers to a Senate committee last May. Michael Berry wanted lawmakers in Congress to know that his members are concerned about an issue: global warming.

　　Snow sports, after all, are not just a business, but a business that depends on the weather.

　　VOICE TWO:

　　The ski season in the United States generally extends from late November until the middle of April. But this season, areas in the West have experienced record amounts of snowfall. Some ski resorts are planning to stay open longer.

　　Last season, thirty-seven of the fifty states had operating ski areas. Nationally, close to five hundred ski areas were open for business. The five states with the most ski areas were New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania.

　　The industry recorded more than fifty-five million visits. That was close to the average for the past ten seasons, but down six percent from the season before. The National Ski Areas Association says the main reason was the weather.

　　VOICE ONE:

　　The ski season was shortened in most of the United States because of warm temperatures and below-average snowfall. This was true everywhere except the Rocky Mountains, in the West. Resorts there reported a record twenty million visits last season. The Rocky Mountains extend through several states including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho.

　　The largest ski resort in the United States is Vail, Colorado. The town of Vail and the nearby Vail Mountain make up the resort. The mountain is more than three thousand five hundred meters high.

　　A ski trip does not have to cost thousands of dollars. Many people go for a day or two and rent skis instead of buying them. But people with enough money to stay at a nice resort might also have enough for some special things. Like riding to the top of the mountain in a helicopter instead of on a ski lift.

　　And ski areas do not have to be outdoors or open only in winter. The first indoor ski dome in the United States is expected to open late this year in New Jersey.

　　VOICE TWO:

　　The United States has three hundred million people. The National Sporting Goods Association says more than six million of them participate in downhill skiing. Two million are cross-country skiers. And more than five million snowboard.

　　Snowboarding gained popularity in the nineteen sixties and seventies. By the early eighties, less than ten percent of ski areas in the United States permitted snowboarding. Many skiers considered it a danger. But today only a few places still ban snowboarding.

　　VOICE ONE:

　　Snowboarders are generally younger than skiers.

　　Alex Lebonitte is twenty-four years old and a personal trainer in Virginia. He finds that snowboarding is not that much more fun than skiing. He feels the speed more on a snowboard than on two skis, and he likes that.

　　But what he especially likes is that snowboarding is more comfortable than skiing, he says. The boots are softer, not as much equipment is needed -- and, he says, everything stays attached when you fall.

　　(MUSIC)

　　VOICE TWO:

　　When a mountain has a lot of snow, there may be danger of an avalanche. Snow slides are powerful, and they can be deadly, burying anything in their path. To reduce the risk of an avalanche, ski areas might use artillery and other explosives to produce controlled slides.

　　Ski areas need a lot of snow. But what happens when there is not enough? In that case, they make their own.

　　Snow making machines are the reason many ski resorts can stay open more than a few months a year. These machines also make it possible to create better ski conditions than nature may provide.

　　VOICE ONE:

　　Ski operators point out that their snow is really no different from the snow that falls from the sky.

　　Snow crystals are ice particles that usually form around a piece of dust in the atmosphere. All snow crystals have six sides, but they form different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals produce snowflakes when they stick together.